Backstage Pass and Activation

[mark skinner]

We're good ..

[Michael Vogel]

If we have to purchase Backstage Pass to access Sonar beyond the free (3 day) trial, haven’t we already purchased it?

I find the whole thing quite confusing. Not in the sense of not understanding, rather the whole Sonar release process  seems unnecessarily convoluted.

While I use CbB still and very grateful for the free support provided since the post Gibson debacle, I’m glad I’m no longer reliant on having a stable DAW to earn my living. Stable in the sense of having a clear picture of where the product line is going. Just too long a lag between announcement of its “soon to be released” status to “where the flaming’ ‘ell is it?

[pwal³]

don't forget that cakewalk as a company seised to exist quite some years ago, it's a bandlab product these days, we're lucky they took the devs as well as the code base/ip, and the devs are nice enough to respond/contribute in a user forum (although that could be an employment requirement)

i wouldn't be surprised if there's an ongoing internal discussion at bandlab about the whole permanent license versus subscription only, sonar only versus the big package of promotion etc and so on, bandlab are socials oriented after all, cakewalk/sonar is not their priority as a business 🤷‍♀️

/goodluck

[ptheisen]

On 5/3/2024 at 11:21 AM, msmcleod said:

I can almost guarantee this is the cause.

Cakewalk will automatically refresh activation if it's logged in and it detects you're close to needing an activation refresh.

 

But what has changed for me is that the refresh seems to be required every 3 weeks or so, when it used to be 6 months. I'm not aware of any official explanation for that yet.

 

On 5/5/2024 at 9:55 AM, John Vere said:

My advice is like in my video. Stop complaining and either switch to Sonar or switch DAWs

This is a forum for CbB, by definition a place where people are invited to express their opinions about it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, not just the people that agree with you. The attitude in the quote above is somewhat common on this forum, but even if it is well intentioned, you need to realize that it is driving some people away from CbB/Sonar in general. So they are taking the part of your advice where you tell them to switch DAWS.

[pwal³]

grumpy do as grumpy must 🤷‍♀️

[John Vere]

Re reading what I said I would say I actually said exactly how I feel right now. 
And it’s based on a lot of background info I’ve been working on for 2 months or more. 
I have downloaded and installed most of the major competitors DAWS. My conclusion was Sonar has too many features I use daily that none of those DAWS seem to have.
In other words Sonar has my personal workflow nailed down. I think this is the perfect time for anyone who is having issues with paying for Sonar to move on from the soon to be useless CbB and start trying these other DAWS for them selves.
Everybody has a different workflow and you might find a DAW you should have been using all along. 
Cakewalk for sure has lost a lot of customers with the crazy way they transitioned but honestly they have achieved the mission that took 5 or more years to produce a solid DAW that in my opinion is one of the best DAWS for PC users now. 

Some of the people that have left will be back once things settle down and then I think they will also slowly gain lots of new users over time as word gets out there. 

Remember this slow process is not the developers fault it’s the company that’s not moving very fast.
Next is still in Beta and it’s almost like only one person is working on the bugs of which there are many. 

Edited May 7 by John Vere

[Terry Kelley]

Do you have some inside information we don’t? 

[tdehan]

On 5/2/2024 at 5:07 PM, John Vere said:

This is what I’ve noticed. You update and then it needs re activation. 
 I’ve just seen a lot of posts from people complaining about CbB needing activation every few weeks. I think they are also offline. 
Oh well such is the life of using free stuff. 
Im pretty confident that once Sonar is purchased we will see the end of the activation process.  

I'm not offline and all 5 of my computers are showing the RED activation nag screen at least every other time I open Bandlab Cakewalk.  I've tried logging out of Bandlab while Cakewalk is open from within Cakewalk and then logging back in.  So far,  every so many times of opening Cakewalk I get the same red nag screen with a countdown.  At the moment I have 9 days to activate it.  So, if logging out and logging back in is not activating it...how the hell do I activate it???

[tdehan]

On 5/2/2024 at 10:04 AM, John Vere said:

Seems a lot of people who are still using Cakewalk are being bombarded with re activation notices. I haven't seen one for CbB  for a couple of months since the last update. I have it still installed on 3 different computers. All also have Sonar and therefore have been activated via Backstage Pass, 

I was wondering, is it only people who don't have the Backstage Pass that are experiencing this? 

Sonar has tossed a few activations at me after updates and it's a simple one click deal. So wondering if that also has activated CbB as well? 

What is Backstage Pass?  

[HIBI]

1 hour ago, tdehan said:

What is Backstage Pass?  

See FAQs - "What is Backstage Pass?" on the Cakewalk Sonar page.